Scientists cleaning up site in New Mexico

Friday, July 30, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

Scientists from the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office are in northwestern New Mexico this summer cleaning up non-radioactive contamination at a former nuclear test site.

The site, known as Gasbuggy, is about 55 miles east of Farmington, N.M. It was the location of an underground nuclear test conducted in 1967.

The NNSA and contractor staff will excavate and remove soils contaminated with diesel fuels from the Gasbuggy site.

The soils were contaminated after drilling operations occurred before the nuclear test itself. The diesel contamination was found in mud pits, designed and built to contain the drilling fluids. Work is expected to be completed by the end of September.

Gasbuggy was part of the Atomic Energy Commission's Plowshare Program, an effort to develop peaceful uses for atomic energy. The AEC is the predecessor of the Department of Energy.

The purpose of Gasbuggy was to increase natural gas production using a nuclear explosion to fracture gas-bearing rock formations in tight underground reservoirs. Gasbuggy packed a nuclear punch of 29,000 tons of TNT when it exploded 4,240 feet underground.

Samples at the New Mexico site indicate no radioactive contamination at the surface.

Gasbuggy was one of eight nuclear test sites located outside the boundaries of the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Other tests were conducted in Mississippi, Nevada, Alaska, Colorado and New Mexico.